In this issue SpaceX has announced that SES, the first commercial satellite operator to launch with them, will now be the first company to launch cargo on a reused Falcon 9 rocket! There's also a great article on Medium written by a Tesla owner with a 100,00 mile Model S that he used for Uber, road trips, and camping. It's definitely worth the read.

I'm also experimenting with an end of the month free shipping promotion on our SpaceX and Tesla themed shirts. Just scroll to the bottom and click on our 'The Falcon Has Landed' t-shirt. If enough of you take part I'll make it a monthly promotion 🙂

Thanks for reading, and enjoy issue 39!

Sincerely,
Zachary K.D.

Featured Quote

"What I'm trying to do is to make a significant difference in space flight & make space flight accessible to almost anyone."

SpaceX

SES — an international satellite operator based in Luxembourg — will be the first company to launch cargo to space on a reused SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The rocket will carry the company's SES-10 satellite, meant to provide telecommunications coverage to Latin America, into a very high orbit above Earth. That launch is scheduled for sometime in the fourth quarter of 2016 and will mark the first time SpaceX flies one of the rockets it has landed this past year.

"Having been the first commercial satellite operator to launch with SpaceX back in 2013, we are excited to once again be the first customer to launch on SpaceX's first ever mission using a flight-proven rocket," Martin Halliwell, chief technology officer at SES, said in a statement. "We believe reusable rockets will open up a new era of spaceflight, and make access to space more efficient in terms of cost and manifest management."

By 2025 or 2040 — depending on whether you believe SpaceX or NASA, respectively — humans will arrive on Mars. They will set up homes, live within a communal system, eat, drink, sleep, work, relax. They will see ancient Martian lakes and wind-rippled sand dunes. And they will grapple with a thought that a modern Theodore Roosevelt might have considered had he been a modern-day space cowboy: How do we not screw up Mars?

Meet Catherine Conley, the NASA Planetary Protection Officer. Her job is to make sure when humans show up on Mars, they're not going to trample on the pristine Martian landscape. "Because with planetary protection policy and avoiding harmful contamination, you are understanding that you have the potential to screw up the investigation of alien life."

SpaceX hopes to kick off Labor Day Weekend with a launch early next Saturday, Sept. 3, of a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Liftoff with an Israeli communications satellite is targeted for 3 a.m., the opening of a two-hour window at Launch Complex 40. With the Amos-6 satellite bound for an orbit 22,300 miles over the equator, SpaceX will be expected to try to land the rocket's first stage on a ship stationed down range in the Atlantic Ocean.

SpaceX lugged the vehicle back to a port near Los Angeles where its cargo will be removed and sent to NASA. That research cargo includes cardiac cells that will teach us how microgravity affects the human heart, given that prior studies show how deep-space missions — like those being planned for Mars — could create muscle atrophy in cardiac tissue. Also coming back to Earth are the results of investigations on rodents in a low-Earth environment and samples of gut microbes (for astronaut health management).

Tesla

Most $100,000 cars are babied by their owners. Never taken out except on a warm Sunday. Garaged and kept with extremely low mileage. Only driven by the owner, not even allowed to be driven by a spouse, much less a stranger. Not my poor Tesla.

I've worked that thing like a rented freaking mule. So, you ask, how did the Tesla hold up? What's it actually look like now? What are the exact operating costs, repair numbers and dollars spent & earned on this car over the 2 years of ownership? Read on to find out all the gory details…and the photos to prove it.

This has been the planet's hottest summer in recorded history, so it's nice to know Elon Musk has commenced his grand scheme to transform the energy business so profoundly that there's a chance Iceland won't become the new Jamaica after all. One small step in Musk's plan involves merging Tesla, his electric car company, with SolarCity, his cousin's solar panel maker. That deal—announced in August—has been getting all sorts of blowback from short-term-thinking Wall Street nincompoops, who groan that both companies are losing money and the merger won't help. Such doubts about Musk are like asking the Wright brothers in 1899 why they were fiddling with bicycle parts.

Tesla Model 3 prototype sightings have gone dark for almost 2 months now and none have emerged since the official 'pencil down' on the design last month… until now. The last sighting was of the black matte prototype being displayed at Tesla's Palo Alto headquarters in July.

The P100D Model S with Ludicrous mode will propel the car to 60 miles per hour in just 2.5 seconds. Tesla's Model X sport utility vehicle will get there in 2.9 seconds. The bigger, 100-kilowatt-hour batteries also provide the first official U.S. Environmental Protection Agency range of more than 300 miles on a charge.

These speeds are crazy fast, matched only by sold-out supercars with tiny production runs: Ferrari's $1.4 million LaFerrari, Porsche's $845,000 918 Spyder, and Bugatti's $2.3 million Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse. Tesla's new Model S, at $134,500, is just as quick as any vehicle on the road. Even its seven-seat SUV beats the McLaren 675LT.

It's starting to feel very 'complete' now, the Model S. Of course there are niggles. The instrument screen wantonly displays irelelvant information, AutoPilot remains imperfect (why does it need to sit so left-biased in the lane?) and there's the cubby hole lid's appetite for fingers.

However, there's all the performance we could realistically need, sensible and accurate range, an overall deeper sense of quality and what many EV-curious folk have been crying out for: a more competitive, accessible finance option. The 60D won't become your new darling of YouTube drag races, but it's the best all-round Model S yet.

The ability to turn your vehicle into a hotspot is particularly useful to passengers. They will be able to use their own mobile devices (tablets, laptops, etc.) with the vehicle's service plan. The feature will become increasingly important as Tesla's vehicle become autonomous, especially with the autonomous car-sharing service Elon Musk announced in his 'Master Plan Part Deux'.

People will start treating Tesla's vehicles like an extension of their home, where there's already Wi-Fi, and do the same things they would be doing there, but while the vehicle is transporting them to a location. While it is expected that Tesla's media features will be adapted to self-driving technology, it is also expected that the passengers will still want to use their mobile devices. That's when a hotspot becomes useful.

SolarCity

The building shell is about 99 percent complete, while about 95 percent of the work has been done on the factory's mechanical, electrical and process systems, according to an update from state officials earlier this month. Workers need to finish the process systems to install tools in the facility, as well as complete the electrical substation to provide permanent power to the 1.2 million-square-foot complex. The facility is expected to be finished by Sept. 15.